Conveyer apparatus



Dec. 19, 1944.

R. J. STEWART CONVEYR`\ APPARATUS 2 Sheets-Sheet l Filed Sept. 9',\ 1941 Dec. 19, 1944.

' www@ .JCMQM R. J. sTw-ART I 2,365,304

coNvEYEr vA1==1='RATUS Filed sept. 9, 1941 l 2 sheets-'sheet 2 .Renew tjewaw,

Patented Dec. 19, 1944 UNITED STATES,1 PATENT OFFICE CONVEYEB APPARATUS n y Robert J. Stewart, Baltimore, Md., assigner yto. Crown Cork & Seal Company, Inc., Baltimor Md., a `corporation of New York f Application September 9, 1941, Serial No. 410,223

(Cl. 198-.272/)1v Claims.

The present invention relates to a conveyer driving mechanism and, more particularly, to a conveyer drive for the infeed portion of a filling machine.

Y Containers to be filled are usua-lly delivered to* a filling machine by a continuously moving straight line conveyer moving from the bottle Washer and which conveyer carries ythe containers toward a rotary infeed dial on the filler.

When a container is directly adjacent the in-' feed dial', the movement of the conveyer will carry it into the dial pocket which next sweeps across the conveyer. The path of the container is' generally along a straight line until it is in a dial pocket, and it then moves along a curved 'the above mentioned transfer occurs is one at which containers are most apt to be damaged. More particularly, in sweeping across the conveyer, the linieeddial may rather forcibly engage a container if the latter is not moving at a `speed closely approximating the dial speed or is not at the proper point for engagement by the dial, and the container may be sharply moved against the guide elements which cooperate with the conveyer and dial. Also, under such circumstances, the container may even become momentarily jammed between the dial and the guide elements.

Another cause of containers, and particularly bottles, becoming marred is due to the fact that bottling plants usually have the bottle washing machine produce washed bottles at a slightly higher rate than the filling machine can receive them. The purpose of this practice is to insure that each filling head of the filling machiner will receive a bottle, and, the surplus rate of supply permits this to occur even though some washed bottles may be removed from the straight line conveyer by an inspector before they reach the filling machine. This common system of operation also allows for a temporary stoppage of the washing machine. In any event, the practice results in the presence of alinefo-f contacting bottles on the straight line conveyer. y

Containers which do not require Washing, such as cans, are also placed uponthe conveyer 'in such manner and quantities that the above'situation can occur. f

In order that containers may be delivered to vthat filling machines LA the infeed dial in properly spaced arrangement 'pto be synchronized therewith, it has been the usual practice to provide a gate or timing' device on' the conveyer and adjacent the dial. IThese timing devices have 4been controlled "from, the

. ythe fact'that when the leading container is released by the gate, the following contacting cony taners move sharply forward with the'conveyer, and their movement is then' suddenly stopped by the gate, causing theline lof containers to be sharply jarred. Since the force of any such impact increases as the square of the container velocity; this cause of impact is increasingly important in' connection with the trend toward fill-, ers of higher output 'whichy require more rapid movement of all the container handling devices, including the infeed conveyer.y

Generally speaking, the above difficulties are due to the'fact that containers move at random upon the straight line conveyer and, during the latter portion of their movement thereon, are in contact so that their axes are spaced apart a distance equal to their overall diameters. However, the infeed dialis designed to handle them in a more -widely spacedv arrangement, which spacing is determined by the spacing between the vfilling'nozzles and capping heads. Use of a timing device has heretofore been customary to obtain such spacing, but 'had thestated objection ofjarring' the containers. Y l

Another point to be noted in connection with filling ymachines -i's' the following: vIn order to enable ,ai-filler to handle containers of different sizes, afpurchaser is provided with/a different infeed dial for each size, each dialhaving a different outside diameter and pockets of Vslightly different conformation.' It is also'to be noted that the dials for-eachsize container are so designed'that the vertical axes of all containers, :regardless 'of size, will move along the same 'curvedpath That is, the infeed dials for all size .,thanit; damages containers f of Vanother size. In .otherwo-rds, even though machines havehereto; 1 fore been@ designed which would operate very smoothly andquietlywith acontainer of one size, l25

...the vsame machine .wouldbe quite noisy when y@handlingcontainersofanother size and would badly mar such containers.

f move at randomtoa conveyeriadapted yto handle them in spaced relation.

--ious sizes.

. getheron lthe conveyer` adjacent the -usual timing device. This means .that a containeris momen-.70

feed dial were changed for different sizes of containers, it wouldbe extremely dilcult to subsequently place the containers on the necessarily fixed pitch circles on which the nozzles and capping heads reciprocate. Therefore, an infeed dial 5 intended for large 'containers will have deeper pockets than a dial intended for small containers and the guide elements surrounding the respective Adialsfvvill be-so positioned for each size container that they will guide all containers along exactly the same curved line.

` Also, as has been generally stated above, because the circumferential spacing of the'nozzles and capping heads is xed, the axes of all containers must be kept apart zxed=distances-by the l5; various sized infeed dials.

In any event, and even with the above changes for containers of differenti:-sizes,..and',also with the use of a timing device adjustable for size, it is frequently found that a machine willdamage" ,containers of. one sizevfto a much greater. extent An importanteobject. of: the present invention is ltoprovidean arrangement 4for smoothly trans-.f 30

ferring articles from a conveyer on which ythey iurtherobjectof therinvention is to provide .amechanismofthe. aboveg;type which does not 35y Arequireuse-vof(atimingdevice.

Another-object-of` the .invention is to provide g mechanism-ofthe above construction which will satisfactorily andsmoothlyhandle articlesof var- 40 ,y I- 4have found .thaty the, ,difficulties :heretofore ,encounteredfwith someV sizesxof. containers upon asmachine which satisfactorily,.handles another .-sizel can be; corrected if vthe. -conveyer1 drive is, so

designed that containersqare movedv at-a speedup;

.,deterrriined=by.their size. lIphave-further found that .if suchadrive fis-provided, the usual timing device can be eliminated.

vthe. present invention-the conveyer and .the `rotary dial1 or other infeedielement,;instead of-50 type-.ofcontainer, the two elements can'be driven ata speedtc causecontainersztobe' properly syn-Il 55. chronized-or fmeshedW-.with -lthe dial Dockets.

..That.is, thecon-veyermay vbed-riven faster with respect to the dial when-larger containers are handledand thespeed -of-. the conveyer kwith respect-to the dialcanbe reducedfwith smaller c0n 60 tainers. The arrangement permits aspeed relationship variable lvvithfeach size container and enables all sizes-tosbe synchronized with the dial, While the. present. invention has'been discussed tabove in connection-with-..lli.ng machines, it will@ be obvious. that it is readily applicable to other .apparatus for handlingiarticles. i

As has been stated above, containers crowd totarily stopped. at thispont. orgits` advancing move- .mentat least vreduced tofa speed slower than the wmcvement of theconveyer. -'Obviously,.if the conveyer is Amoving at. .a .linear ,speed corresponding tothat of thediaL-thestopped orretarded con;x75

tainer will not be accelerated by the conveyer to reach the dial pocket at the proper instant, and some jarring will occur at the moment of impact with the dial.

It has heretofore been proposed to correct the difculty referred to in the preceding paragraph by interpcsing between a conveyer and a dial a more rapidly moving element to accelerate the movement 0f retardedor stopped containers to synchronizel them with the dial. However, such.

arrangements are not applicable to correct the `=rnore important and more frequent difficulties uarisingf-from filling containers of different sizes and, in addition, require the provision of a third moving elementwhich, with its guide elements, mustf'usuallybe. so arranged as to interfere with theestablished and most desirable path for the containers.

It has also previously been proposed to vary the'spacing of articles on a receiving conveyer Aelement jby driving such conveyer at various speeds .withcrespectl-to the` delivery.y conveyer.

. number of. pockets. Therefore, the present invention must-overcomefactors not contemplated by oonveyerassemblies intended to vary the spacing of articles.

Otherobjects `and advantages of the invention .will be apparent from thefollowing specification and accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure l is a diagrammatic showingof a p'ortionA of a bottling-.plant and including the conveyer. drive. ofthe present invention.

' Figure 2 lis a fragmentary view showing the infeed portion of a filling machine in top Aplan and vvFigure 3 isaidiagrammatic view,in plan, show- ;ing the manner of .transferring containers of different sizes fromal straight line conveyer to the rotary-.infeed dial of a filling machine.

,Figurel showsa portion vof a bottling plant layout. and the numeralnIIl designates a bottle washing machine. from which containers are 4moved by continuously moving straight line conveyer II machine IU--and straight line conveyer operate As is the usual practice, the washing at such relative speeds that the washing machine bottle carrying. conveyer I2, moving inthe direction of the two .paralleltarrowsl and including theusual diagrammaticallyl shown rowsl I2a of bottle holding elements, will place a line of-bot- .tles upon the conveyer Il, thelatter will move them. to the rightin: Figure- 1, and very shortly after the last container, ofthe line has moved ,to the right ofthefbottle handling conveyer I2,

the latterwill deposit anotherline of bottlesupon conveyer I I.

. Conveyer I I- conducts the-bottles to a transfer .device I3.by means `ofwhich the bottles aredivverted to. a straight line conveyer I4 forming part of the Afilling -machine` l5. Straight line conveyer I4 conducts the containers to the'lrotary infeeddial IB of .the-fillingmachine, which If the mabottles directly-to -a filling table such as I1, while ,ifthe Vmachine iS-asoft drink' ller, dial I6 will `conduct the bottles to a syruping mechanism I8 from which theyare subsequently transferred Ato the filling table by an infeed transfer ,dialr lila. Ineither event,.the bottles-are removedV from.. the

-veyer shaft 23. By this arrangement,

filling table by an out'feed 'transfer' dial l'ib which moves them to a rotary crowner or capper dial I9 from which they move through an outfeed dial 20 which again places the containers upon either the straight line conveyer I4 or a separate outfeed conveyer. A transfer device 2| may b'e provided to place the containers upon a conveyer 22 which conducts them to a further point in the bottling plant, for example, a beverage mixer, a labeler, or to a point -at which they are placed in cases. l

By the prior practice, a timing or gate device has been provided alongside conveyer I4 immediately in advance of dial IB.

As is usual, the lling table I1 carries-bottle supports I'l' having filling nozzles vertically aligned therewith and positioned` on a circle which is the pitch circle of table I 'I in that it rregisters with the Vpitch circles of theA infeed transfer dial I'Ia and the outfeed transfer dial Hb. The syruping heads are positioned on the various rotary container handling elements of the filling machines. More particularly, the

usual drive motor for the filling machine maybe provided, but instead of driving the straight line conveyer I4 directlyfrom this drive, and always at the same linear speed ratio with respect t0 the rotary elements of the filling machine, the variable speed mechanism 24 is interposed in the driving mechanism of the machine for the purpose of driving the straight line conthe straight line conveyer I4 can be driven atfvarious speeds with respect to the rotary elements of `the filling machine simply by adjustment of the variable speed mechanism. Alternatively, the rotary container handding elements of the filling machine can be driven by one source of power and the straight line conveyer I4 may be driven from a separate source of power so that the speed of movement of the straight line conveyer can be adjusted independently of the speed of movement of the rotary container handling elements including infeed dial shaft I6.

It will be understood that in some instances the straight line conveyer ,i4 may extend entirely to the washing machine Ill and may also' extend to the apparatus which receives the containers from the filling machine, thereby eliminating use of one or both of the transfer devicesl g nated by the numeral 3| extends about the path of movement of the rotary dial I to maintain containers in the dial pockets. The guide 3| may include ar jam detector 32 which is adapted to 75' move outwardly in well known manner should a container come between it and the prong or tooth of the Ainfeed dial, such outward movement of the detector causing the machine to be stopped. In the disclosed arrangement, the detector 32 or the other corresponding portion of the guide 3| includes a shoulder 33 which serves to give each container a movement radially of the dial so as to move towardv the dial pocket. The opposite portion of the guide 30 is correspondingly concaved as indicated at 34. Beyond shoulder 33 the guide 3| conforms to the path of movement of containers with the infeeddial I6.

The containers B illustrated at positions a to e in Figure 2 indicate how containers accumulate adjacent the infeed dial if no timer is used and due to the fact, hereinbefore discussed, that it 'is the practice to place containers upon or delinear speed with respect to the dial I6, regardless of the size ofthe containers, as was the prior practice, the speed of the container at position b would be a variable, depending upon whether it was markedly retarded with respect to the conveyer I4 before it was first engaged by the dial. If it was so retarded, it may be moving too slowly for smooth and non-jarring engagement by they i dial.

If it is jarred by the dial, such a jar may be transmitted backwardly `to the respectively contacting containers at'positions c and d so that '40 they, as well as the container at b, will be marred.

Other factors affecting the movement of a container initially engaging the dial, as is the case with the container at position b, are hereinafter discussed in connection with Figure 3. The container at position e is moving entirely under con trol of conveyer I4 and the container at position d is moving entirely under control of dial IB.

It will be noted that if the containers at positions c and d in Figure-Z were held back by a timing device, they would be stopped, and the conveyer would move beneath them.

Figure 3 diagrammatically illustrates in more y detail than Figure 2 the manner in which containers move from the straightline conveyer I4 Y to the infeed dial I6 by the present invention.'

Referring to this figure, a large container L is shown' at position L2 in which position it is fully engaged by the pocket of the dial Mia iitted upon lthe shaft I5" tohandle containers of this size.

At such time, the guides 30 of the sraight line conveyer I4 are spaced apart as shown in solid lines in Figure 3 and the guide 3| surrounding the infeed dial is positioned as shown in solid lines so as to be sufficiently spaced from the axis of the dial that containers of the size L can be accommodated within the dial pockets and their axes will move on pitch line P.

Thecontainer at position L2 has just been fully engaged -by the infeed dial and has therefore just come fully under the driving force of the dial to pass `entirely out of driving control of straight line conveyer I4'. Also,-at this moment, the succeeding container at position LI is'being maintained` in contact with the container at position 3L2 -,under,the actionfof the;straight-lineonveyer. It willbe understoodgthatithe two:.containers re- {ferred`V to may Yhave ;been.;spaeed.apart;u at .the timeV they wereA 1 originally; placed zupon; the,;con

. ve-yer system vbut the-.containeriat L Icapproached the containerinow at L2; .tocomeiintd contactzwith the latterV as; the: two imovedqadjacent the. infeed .dial, due to the.' fact that: ai surplus.. ofgcontainers 4*was placed on conveyer. I4 .toxcause-tan adequate supply of containers tofaccumulatezat .the 4infeed of the filling machine,

.It will bey apparent from-Figure BLthatsbefore the container at-.positionfLI can' reach-.position L2, its axis vmust ,movefrom 'i theupointLS to 1 pOnt L4.

Figure 3 alsorshows in Adot `and dash'lines: the arrangement of the various vguide elementsrand theform-of the infeeddial' lbtwhensmaller containersS. also shown inl dotand'dash lines; are .to -be handled upony the machine. It will'fbeiobserved that the dial IBb is-of4 suiciently'iarge diameter and the guides are positioned sufficiently closely to thedial axis that the axes offthe containers-S will follow the-samearcuate v-pathvll as the axes of the larger containers? L. This path, the pitch circle ofthe infeed`dial,-rrlust be maintained because Ait registers with thepitch circles of the lling table and crowning mechanism and these latter respectively carrynozzles and capping heads positioned to reciprocate on vertical lines intersecting the pitch circles of filling table and crowning mechanism, respectively. In other words, if a container were caused to'rnove about r the infeed dial on a path of diierent radius, i. e., a diierentpitch circle,'some means would have to be provided to subsequently place the axis of that container on the pitch circle'of the filling table so that the container'would be kept aligned with the vertically moving -lling heads.

The small container at lpositionSZ has just come entirely under the driving'force of the infeed dial I 6b so that it now moves 'independently of the straight line conveyor I4. 1At position-SI there is indicated the nextfsucceeding small container which is in contact with'the containery at .position S2 due to the 'driving -eiort -of the straight line conveyer I4, though conveyer I4 may now be movingsomewhat faster than the container at position SI.

of the container at position SI is-indicated atS3. It will be noted fromlFigureS that the large container L at position LI must move asubstantial distance before it reaches position L2, as comj pared to the distance which must betravelled by containers are being, handled.

`In kaccorda/nce 'with the ;-.above, the .variable speed mechanism 24 ,of-.Figurelewouldbe adjusted by anoperatorso., that thefstraight.,line conveyer I 4 would -movesomewhat, slower with Theeaxis of the container at position S2 is indicated at.-'S4.while the axis containers are nbeing thandled, ther variable v:speed mechanism 24 'I would bei adjusted "so .that .the straight line conveyer I4' would move more rapidly withi respectl to infeed dial liau'thereby enabling -acontainer to move from'position LI-tofposition L2 exactly in synchronismv Awith the dial.

:Itwvill be observed that, for. practicalpurposes, pointL4 is the vpoint at which the axis 0f a large container L iirst reaches the pitch circle P. i Similarly, the point S4 is that atwhich theaxis of a small container S will rst reach thexpitch -circle P.

Points-S4 and L4 in Figure 3 show how the point at which containers are'fully engaged by thegdial` is varied circumferentiallyy of the dial path, laccording to the size' of. the container. This vis customary .to obtain smooth transfer.

:The container, at position LI withl its axis at zpoint L3 is `diagrarrimatically indicated as inthe closest position tothe pitch circle P which a container can occupy atthe moment that the preceding container has just beenY fully engagedby the infeed dial. It-wil1 be observedxthat the distance that the. axis of a container must move between these twopoints substantially corresponds to thel diameter of the container because of the fact that the containers are in contact and their axes are thereby only separated by the radius of f each container. Therefore, as stated above, it fol.. lows that a large container must move a greater distance from what is, in effect', its critical position lwith respect to the dial and conveyermovement, to the position when it will be fully under control of the dial.

The positions SI and LI are. critical positions inconnectio-n with the movement of the'containers to the dial in that in such positions the movement of the container is retarded because of its immediate contact with the preceding. container' :110y

4and also because the preceding container is moving somewhat at an angle to the path of the containers atpositions lSI and LI. In settingthe speed at which the conveyer and dial are to'move with respect to leach other, this speed can beso adjusted that accountv will be taken of the fact that the containers at'positions SI- and LI are retarded and that the conveyer must-I perhaps accelerate theirmovement in order to place them in timed relation for synchronism `with. the dial pockets.

In construction ofr a-machine of the type under discussion, index marks can be. placed upon the .adjusting mechanism of the variable speed drive mechanism 24 so as to indicate the ratio at vwhich it should be set with containers ofstandard sizes. With this arrangement, the operator in a bottling plant would simply-have to sei; the mechanism acrespect to infeed dialflbwhensmallcontainers i cordingly.

It has been pointed outabovethat instead of providing a Variable speed drive mechanism 24 to enable the conveyer I4 to be driven at a speed dinerent from-that ofthe shaft carrying dial I6 and the remaining elements of the filling machine,the-conveyer may be driven from an entirely -diierent :source of power, the speed of .which-canbe adjusted withv respect tov thevspeed of the filling machine so that containers `will i' reach the infeedvdial I6 in synchronism.

'While 4theinvention is preferably used lwithout a `timing device, it will be'noted that it may be 4followedwithgise of` such a'device by controlling .the relativel speed of conveyer I4 with respect to `dial IIS-according. to the diameter-of thecontainer fleeingl handled. Forfexample, a large container yheldbyza timing device 'positioned at a-given `point would have its axis spaced a further dis tance from position L2 in Figure 3 than would be the case with a small container. By adjusting the relative speeds of conveyer I4 and dial I6, allowance can be made for this factor.

It will also be understood that the invention is applicable to apparatus other than filling may chines, in fact, it may be used with various types Alternatively, the size of the dial pockets can be s reduced by superimposing thereon plates having smaller ipockets, as is well known.

It will be clear from the above that the invention is of particular importance in connection with apparatus intended for use with articles having a large range of sizes and which must have their axes spaced at fixed distances regardless of size. For example, it has great importance in connection with the filling of milk-bottles due to the fact that the diameters of diierent sizes of milk bottles vary to a very marked extent.

The terminology used in the specication is for the purpose of description, and not of limitation, the scope of the invention being indicatedin the claims.

I claim:

1. In combination, a conveyer on which articles may be carried at random, a second and orbitally moving conveyer to receive articles from the first conveyer and including holding means to maintain articles in spaced relation, said holding means being changeable to handle articles of different sizes without changing the spacing of the article axes, and means whereby articles will move from the first conveyer to the second conveyer ,inv

synchronisim with the holding means comprising .a variable speed drive to vary the linear speed of one of the conveyers with respect to the o-ther COnVeyeI'.

2. In combination, a straight line conveyer adapted to carry articles at random, a pocketed rotary conveying element changeable to receive articles of various sizes without Varying the spacing of the article axes, and means to drive the conveyer and rotary element at relatively variable speeds. f t

3. In a container lling machine, an infeed conveyer adapted to conduct containers at random, a dial driving means arranged to receivey dials of different diameters but each having its pockets similarly spaced circumferentially thereof, guiding elements associated with said' diall driving means and adjustable to conform to dials of different diameters, and means to drive said conveyer and dial driving means at relatively variable speeds.

u4. In combination, a conveyer, a rotaryconveying means arranged to receive articles from y the conveyer, 'the rotary conveying means being changeable to handle runs of articles of different diameters without varying the spacing of the article axes, and means to drive the conveyer and rotary conveyer means 'at relativelyvariable y speeds.

5. In combination, a straight line conveyer adapted to carry articles at random, a pocketed rotary conveying element changeable to receive articles of various sizes without varying the spacing of the article axes or the pitch circle about which the articlesv move, and means to drive the conveyer and rotary element at relatively variable speeds.

ROBERT J. STEWART. 

